BurmaNet News, June 14, 2006

[Editor]

June 14, 2006 Issue # 2983


INSIDE BURMA
DPA: Myanmar opposition calls for "negotiator" in reconciliation process
Irrawaddy: A blacklist goes on sale
BBC: Burma: Orwellian state, with teashops
Mizzima: Land seized for oil drilling in Arakan
DVB: Tun Than still tries to re-enter Burma despite ‘nullified’ passport

BUSINESS / TRADE
DPA: Oil vs. democracy: India's strange bedfellows in energy quest –
Siddhartha Kumar

INTERNATIONAL
Irrawaddy: Ethnic leaders assure UN on child soldiers
Pioneer Press: Schools ramping up for a new group of immigrants

____________________________________
INSIDE BURMA

June 14, Deutsche Presse-Agentur
Myanmar opposition calls for "negotiator" in reconciliation process

Yangon: Myanmar's (Burma's) National League for Democracy (NLD) - the lead
opposition party - on Wednesday called on the international community to
find a suitable "negotiator" to forge a reconciliation between it and the
ruling military regime.

"The negotiator can be from ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations)
or any national leader bestowed by the UN to act as its assignee," said
the NLD in a statement issued in Yangon, formerly Rangoon.

The statement reiterates what the NLD, headed by Aung San Suu Kyi, wrote
in a letter they sent to UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, sources said.

The NLD has refused a UN proposal that it rejoin the government's National
Convention process, which the opposition has dubbed a sham designed to
keep the military in power indefinitely.

Instead the NLD insists what is needed first is a dialogue between itself
and the junta, to be conducted by an international negotiator "rich in
political experience and vision" and acceptable to both sides.

NLD Secretay U Lwin recently said that UN officials were unsuited to
become a negotiator between the two sides.

"They are too bureaucratic. We want a statesman like (former Indonesian
Foreign Minister) Ali Alatas or (former Philippines President) Fidel
Ramos," said U Lwin.

UN Under-Secretary General for Political Affairs Ibrahim Gambari met with
the NLD executive committee during his visit to Myanmar on May 17 to 20.

At their meeting Gambari reportedly proposed that the opposition party
rejoin the military regime's National Convention process while using the
forum to raise current political problems.

The NLD sent a letter to Annan shortly after Myanmar's junta snubbed the
UN chief's personal appeal that they release opposition leader Aung San
Suu Kyi on May 27, when her three-year house arrest came up for
reappraisal.

Despite Annan's appeal, the junta sentenced Suu Kyi, the NLD's general
secretary, to another year of confinement to her Yangon home.

The NLD has for the past decade refused to participate in the
military-backed national convention process to draft a new constitution
for the country and devise a power-sharing mechanism prior to holding a
new round of elections.

The national convention forum was hatched by the military in the wake of
the 1990 general election, which the NLD won by a landslide.

Their electoral victory was rejected by the military on the grounds that
Myanmar, still threatened by various insurgencies, would not be ready for
civilian rule until a new constitution was drafted to deal with the
"minorities" problem.

The NLD walked out on the national convention process in 1996, dubbing is
a "sham" designed to keep the military in power. A decade thereafter the
military is still promoting the convention as the first step in their
glacial progress towards introducing democracy to the country, which has
been under military rule since 1962.

The NLD has long maintained that it is essential to open a dialogue with
the regime before it will re-enter the national convention process, to set
the ground rules for the forum.

____________________________________

June 14, Irrawaddy
A blacklist goes on sale - Yeni

A clandestine report, Enemies of the Burmese Revolution, is quietly on
sale in Rangoon, according to residents. It lists the military regime’s
hierarchy and members of their families.

The report, which is believed to have been compiled by dissidents in
exile, is available on computer floppy discs for 450-500 kyat (US 35
cents) in the city’s downtown area, said one resident who recently bought
a disc.

The Irrawaddy has also acquired a copy. It lists some 500 “enemies” of
Burma’s pro-democracy movement, including military leaders, high-ranking
government officials, celebrities, domestic and international scholars,
journalists and some of the world’s political leaders.

Apart from the junta’s top leaders, the list includes their family members
such as supremo Snr-Gen Than Shwe’s wife Kyaing Kyaing. She is dubbed “the
corrupt first lady.”

Among businessmen listed is tycoon Tay Za, known to be particularly close
to Than Shwe. The report says he is the “junta’s main arms buyer.”

World leaders on the list include Chinese President Hu Jintao and Thai
Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, because they are both deemed to be
friends of the regime. There is also Indian President APJ Abdul Kalam, who
recently visited Burma and discussed businesses and military affairs with
junta leaders.

Among diplomats listed is Japanese ambassador to the UN Kanzo Oshima, who
recently sided with China and Russia in trying to block a US resolution
criticizing Burma from reaching the agenda of the UN Security Council.

Some Burmese and foreign scholars on the list are named as “apologists”
and “lobbyists” for the regime. They include professor at Singapore’s
Institute for Southeast Asian Studies Robert Taylor and Danish policy
analyst from the International Crisis Group Morten Pedersen.

A former founder of the Free Burma Coalition, Zarni, who is known to have
negotiated with Burmese military intelligence officers, and Ma Theingi, a
former aide to detained pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, are on the
list. They are against the US sanctions clamped on Burma, which most
opposition groups back.

Contacted by The Irrawaddy by phone in Rangoon, Ma Theingi said: “I don’t
care. They [dissidents] have charged me many times, like they are doing
now. Personally I just don’t believe that [US] economic sanctions can
bring benefits to ordinary Burmese people.”

The report even named Suu Kyi’s elder brother, Aung San Oo, who lives in
the US. He once filed a lawsuit against his sister for half ownership of
the house where she is now detained.

Several journalists, based both in Burma and overseas, are also on the
list. One of them is Soe Thin, director of US-based Radio Free Asia’s
Burmese service. He is singled out both as a former member of Burma’s
foreign ministry and for joking “disrespectfully” about Suu Kyi.

Some Burmese celebrities are also on the list because of their closeness
to government officials.

The report ends the list with a quote from a speech by Burma’s founding
father Aung San: “Find the closet enemy and fight.” The group of
dissidents who compiled the list, calling itself “Burma Compatriots,” is
believed to plan to keep updating the list.

____________________________________

June 14, BBC News
Burma: Orwellian state, with teashops

The BBC's Kate McGeown has just returned from Burma, where she talked to
people about life under its repressive military regime. In the first of a
series of articles, she gives her impressions of a nation the
international community seems at a loss to know what to do with.

As I stepped down from the plane onto Burmese soil, my head full of
warnings about spies watching my every move, I was pleasantly surprised to
find friendly faces rushing to greet me.

"Thank you so much for coming," said an elderly man, smiling through
betel-stained teeth.

Where was the Orwellian nightmare I had been warned about? Where were the
police ready to cart me off to jail because they had found out I was a
journalist?

The sun was shining, the people were open and friendly... it seemed like
any other Asian country. I found it hard not to wonder what all the fuss
was about.

But it did not take long to find evidence of Burma's darker side.

Barely 20 minutes along the main highway from the airport, I saw a road
leading off to the right that was completely shut off by heavily-armed
police.

The tight security was not surprising, given that the road led to the home
of opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, whose term of house arrest had been
extended just days before my arrival.

Local people never mention Ms Suu Kyi by name - they just call her The
Lady, a term of deference towards a woman whom many Burmese, probably the
vast majority, believe is the rightful leader of their nation.

Despite spending more than 10 of the last 17 years as a prisoner, she
remains the main symbol of resistance against the military regime that has
ruled Burma for four decades, and which often uses fear and intimidation
to keep people in line.

Gossip

Against this backdrop, Burma's 50 million citizens carry on with their
daily lives as best they can.

Down the road from Aung San Suu Kyi's house, the people of Rangoon queue
for the city's crowded buses, huddle in shops with working generators
during the frequent power cuts or play their own version of the Thai
national lottery.

Then they do what all Burmese do, and stop in one of the many teashops to
gossip about the weather and the football.

But that does not mean that their anger at the military regime has
disappeared. If you talk to someone about their life, any veneer of
contentment will usually evaporate.

One day, as we drove past a peaceful rural scene of villagers ploughing
paddy fields with their oxen, I asked my taxi driver for his views on the
political situation.

He had been singing a song to himself, but his face suddenly turned red
and angry, and he said: "I hate the people who rule this country. My
hatred of the government knows no bounds."

In fact he got so upset that we had to stop the car so he could calm down.

Another man became equally animated when I asked him about the secret
military informants who lurk around ever corner.

"They're like a virus - a disease ripping this country apart," he said.
"They are everywhere, and they see everything we do.

"So many of my friends have been caught and jailed over the years - some
for doing hardly anything. So many lives have been ruined."

Speaking out

It is hardly surprising that emotions run so high.

I was only in Burma for a short time, but I quickly found out how
uncomfortable it is to be under surveillance - albeit by a somewhat
amateur spy.

On my first day, a man walked into the lobby of my hotel and pretended to
read a newspaper near where I was sitting.

He did not turn the page for 20 minutes, but the real giveaway was that
the paper - a week-old copy of The Straits Times - was upside-down.

Despite the obvious personal risks of talking to a foreigner, many Burmese
people were still willing to put aside their fears and share their lives
with me.

They told me about their healthcare system, their schools, their views on
the government and the extraordinary decision to move the country's
capital to what was, until a few years ago, a rural backwater.

One day a tour guide showing me round one of the Burma's many pagodas
turned to me and whispered: "Please let other people know what it's like
for us here. We need the outside world to understand."

In this series of articles, I will do my best to answer his request.

____________________________________

June 14, Mizzima News
Land seized for oil drilling in Arakan - Nyein Chan

The State Peace and Development Council has seized more than 160 acres of
farmland in Kyaukphyu township, Arakan State for oil exploration and
extraction.

A villager from the area told Mizzima the land was seized by officers from
the Zinchaung police force on May 12.

“They designated Block A near Innpyin village, Block B near Yenantaung
village, Block C in Uchay village and Block D in Mintettaung village
respectively. Then they surrounded these areas by fence,” the villager,
who has since fled the area, said.

The China National Offshore Oil Corp is known to already have been awarded
exploration and drilling concessions for 60 acres of farmland in
Kyaukchaung village. The company started some civil work in the area in
April.

Sources in Yenantaung village said Zinchaung police arrested three men for
protesting the land seizure—Maung Win, 52, Thein Ngwe, 40, and Kyaw Hla
Thar, 34.

The men were released 10 days later and other villagers were threatened
not to protest by officials.

“They didn’t give any compensation for our farmland seized by them.
Moreover they summoned 20 villagers each day as forced labour for the
construction of buildings in oil drilling work for about one month. We had
to clean the compound and clearing the area for construction work,” a
source from Yenantaung said.

Previously, villagers had been allowed to dig their own small wells on the
land.

____________________________________

June 9, Democratic Voice of Burma
Tun Than still tries to re-enter Burma despite ‘nullified’ passport

Although the Burmese authority declared his passport null and void on
Wednesday, Salai Tun Than, a retired Burmese professor today said that he
will still try to re-enter Burma by other means.

”I can’t say out of the blue as to what I am going to do next, but I am
trying to enter the country, nevertheless,” said Tun Than, who is now in
Thailand and planning to go back to Burma and carry out a solitary
peaceful demonstration against the military government on June 19 which
marks Daw Aung San Suu Kyi's birthday. “They (the military rulers) are
keeping the power of the nation by unfair means. I am going to ask them to
return it (to the rightful owners, the people). As they have nullified it
(his passport), I want to ask them if they have the rights to do so.”

No, said the secretary of exiled Burma Lawyers Council (BLC), Htay Aung.

“There is an existing law concerning the passport. It is called the Burma
Passport Act. There is no clause that says that a passport could be
nullified or declared void,” insisted Htay Aung. “Dr. Salai Tun Than left
the country and went abroad legally. If they didn’t want to issue the
passport to Dr. Salai Tun Than according to the law, they shouldn’t have
done it there and then. According to the existing laws, there is no clause
that says that a government could declare a citizen’s passport null and
void. I want to say that the withdrawal of Dr. Tun Than’s passport by the
government is illegal.”

____________________________________
BUSINESS / TRADE

June 14, Deutsche Presse-Agentur
Oil vs. democracy: India's strange bedfellows in energy quest – Siddhartha
Kumar

New Delhi: As the global scramble for hydrocarbon reserves leaves fewer
sources to tap, India is busy forging alliances with pariah states to fuel
its booming economy.

Several of its new energy partners have track records of oppression, the
stifling of basic freedoms, some even of genocide. But India's appetite
for oil has gotten the upper hand. Energy needs now determine India's
foreign policy and have led the world's largest democracy to back
repressive and undemocratic regimes through multibillion-dollar energy
deals.

The most glaring example is right in the neighbourhood, in Myanmar
(Burma).  Gaining access to one of the largest energy projects in the
region was a key reason for New Delhi to change tack from supporting the
democracy movement there to courting an internationally condemned military
junta.

India's state-run ONGC Videsh Ltd (OVL) and Gas Authority of India (GAIL)
picked up stakes of 20 and 10 per cent, respectively, in the A-1 block of
the Shwe gas field off the coast of Myanmar's western Arakan state -
estimated to contain up to 102 billion cubic metres of gas.

India is also exploring for gas in another Myanmar block and doing
groundwork on a 900-kilometre, 1-billion-dollar pipeline to transport gas
from its neighbour, petroleum ministry officials said. India's investments
in Myanmar's energy sector will only enhance the Rangoon military's grip
on power by contributing to its largest source of income - energy profits
of up to 3.2 billion dollars annually.

New Delhi has ignored appeals by democracy activists and the indigenous
Shwe Gas Movement to hold off on the projects. Critics charge that India
will be legitimizing military rule, protecting the junta from Western
sanctions and making democracy a distant dream for thousands fighting on
its behalf in Myanmar.

"People inside the country are very much disappointed with the position
the government has taken towards Burma, especially when they realize now
that the Indian government is supporting the generals and thus has ignored
the aspirations of the Burmese people," said Soe Myint, editor of the
Mizzima news agency, which focuses on Myanmar. Farther afield, Sudan,
whose Arab-dominated government is accused of war crimes against the
country's black population, has emerged as India's biggest energy partner,
drawing investments of more than 2 billion dollars.

The Greater Nile Oil Project, in which OVL has a 25-per-cent stake at 669
million dollars, has been among the biggest overseas projects in terms of
yield, officials said.

OVL has earmarked another 300 million dollars for two blocks in Sudan and
is also in charge of a pipeline project there.  Energy analysts defended
the moves, saying that India was not nearly as hypocritical about its
political ideals as the world's oldest democracy, the United States, and
was toeing the US line on energy issues in Central Asia, a region brimming
with dictators and tyrants.

Washington, warming its ties to New Delhi with proposed support for
nuclear power, is also keen to sponsor other energy deals to benefit India
- such as a pipeline from Turkmenistan and an Asian power grid from
Kazakhstan. The US would stand to benefit by thwarting a planned pipeline
project from Iran.

"We have been trying to obtain stakes in Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan," a
petroleum ministry official said, requesting anonymity. "The government is
trying to facilitate a positive environment for Indian companies to pick
up equity."

OVL and Kazakhstan's KazMunaiGaz are jointly to develop oil and gas
properties in two blocks in the Caspian Sea region, news reports said.

During Indian Premier Manmohan Singh's recent visit to Uzbekistan, the two
countries inked a pact to cooperate in gas and oil exploration and
production. GAIL and Uzbekistan's Uzbekneftegaz are also to work together
to build facilities in Uzbekistan to produce liquefied petroleum gas.

Energy experts want India to step up its energy diplomacy even further,
saying the country is still not "as pragmatic" as other countries.

"A country which imports 73 per cent of its oil cannot look at the
political character of governments," energy analyst Narendra Taneja said.
"Gas has no nationality. We need energy to sustain our economic growth,
pull people above the poverty line, create jobs. India has no option but
to aggressively pursue its energy diplomacy."

Political analysts disagree.

"India definitely should look at long-term solutions for energy needs,"
Myint said. "More importantly, it should not encourage the regimes or
should not be a party in violating the rights of other peoples under the
name of energy or development."

Asked recently about double standards on democracy, India's senior
diplomat, Rajiv Sikri, made clear that India was not averse to striking
deals with pariah states.

"I think we deal with the world as it is," he said. "We deal with many
countries, including our neighbours, which may not be democracies. We try
and develop mutually beneficial relationships with all countries."

____________________________________
INTERNATIONAL

June 14, Irrawaddy
Ethnic leaders assure UN on child soldiers - Shah Paung

Leaders of the Karen National Union and the Karenni National Progressive
Party say they have assured UN officials at meetings in northern Thailand
that they no longer recruit child soldiers.

The KNU and the KNPP appealed to be removed from the list of countries and
organizations employing child soldiers in a meeting earlier this month,
but the KNPP said no decision had been taken. UNICEF declined to comment
on Wednesday.

KNU joint secretary David Tharckabaw said he and other officials had met
representatives in Thailand of the UN Children’s Fund, UNICEF, and the UN
High Commissioner for Refugees.

KNU General Secretary Mahn Sha said although the KNU had not recruited
child soldiers since 2000 it was possible that “low-level leaders” were
not following orders from the top.

KNPP General Secretary Raymond Htoo said if any children applied to serve
with KNPP forces they were sent off to school.

Tharckabaw assured the UN representatives that inquiries would be made
into the possibility that children were serving still in units of the
Karen National Liberation Army.

According to a report by the London-based Coalition to Stop the Use of
Child Soldiers in 2004 some 6,000-7,000 child soldiers were serving in
ethnic armies in Burma.

____________________________________

June 14, Pioneer Press (St. Paul, MN)
Schools ramping up for a new group of immigrants - Doug Belden

More Karen refugees from Myanmar may mean revival of language program

As the number of Hmong refugees levels off in St. Paul schools, a new
group is arriving in increasing numbers from refugee camps in Thailand.

The Karen (pronounced cur-REN) are an ethnic minority fighting a
decades-long battle for autonomy against the military dictatorship of
Myanmar, also known as Burma.

In 2004, several dozen Karen children registered in St. Paul Public
Schools, and the number has grown to more than 220 this school year.

The Karen weren't the only group to arrive in significant numbers this
year. The district continues to get large numbers of Spanish-speaking
students, said Valeria Silva, director of the district's English Language
Learner programs. But "the difference is, with the Spanish speakers, we've
had experience."

St. Paul's 41,000 students speak an estimated 103 languages and dialects.
Burmese/Karen is now the sixth most common.

Silva said it was difficult to find a Karen interpreter, but the district
was able to hire one on an hourly basis this year. Next year, it will be a
full-time job.

"We know that there are more (Karen students) coming," Silva said.

About 9,300 Karen refugees at the Tham Hin camp in Thailand recently were
declared eligible for resettlement in the United States. In total, an
estimated 140,000 Karen live in refugee camps along the Myanmar-Thailand
border.

It's impossible to say how many from the Tham Hin camp will wind up in
Minnesota, but "it will be substantial for the Karen community," said Joel
Luedtke, director of refugee services for the Minnesota Council of
Churches, one of six agencies that does refugee resettlement in the Twin
Cities. Some may come here directly from Thailand; others will land
somewhere else in the United States and then move to St. Paul.

It's also difficult to get an accurate estimate of how many Karen are in
Minnesota because many arrived after the 2000 Census, but Luedtke said
he's heard estimates of about 900 people, almost all of them in St. Paul.

St. Paul is "one of the hubs of (the Karen) community in the United
States," Luedtke said.

There aren't enough Karen immigrants in St. Paul schools yet to warrant
reviving the Transitional Language Centers that were set up for the Hmong,
Silva said.

For now, new Karen arrivals are receiving instruction in "language
academies," which still offer intensive language assistance but with more
mainstreaming than students got in the TLCs.

Hancock-Hamline University Magnet Elementary has the most Karen students
in the district — about 38, roughly a third of whom were new this school
year.

"Background-wise, they're almost the same as the Hmong," said Xoua Kue, an
ELL kindergarten teacher at Hancock, which serves about 550 students in
kindergarten through sixth grade across Snelling Avenue from Hamline
University, with which it partners.

Hancock sixth-grader Aye Aye Aung started at Hancock in 2000 as a
first-grader after spending five or six years in a Thai camp. He said his
English really started to take off in second grade, and he praised the
school for creating a comfortable environment. "Teachers got to know me
really well," he said.

Fifth-grader Law Law, who is finishing her second year at Hancock, said
there is no comparison between the schools in St. Paul and those back
home. "In Thailand, when you do something wrong, they're going to hit you
with a stick," she said.